decision to power the device with Tizen, an operating system it’s developing with Intel Corp. and a handful of telecommunications companies, including Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc. and France’s Orange SA.

But the move could presage a broader shift away from Google Inc.’s Android OS, which powers the vast majority of Samsung’s mobile devices, including its best-selling series of Galaxy smartphones. Samsung, in a statement, said the company “has a commitment to support multiple platforms to offer consumers more choices and we will continue to collaborate closely with Google.” Google didn’t reply to requests for comment.

Perhaps more crucial to its future is how third-party developers, whose apps increasingly sit at the center of the mobile-user experience, embrace Tizen. One developer, whose app will appear on Samsung’s new smartwatch when it becomes available for sale in April, said that his company initially balked at developing the app for Tizen. His company had already created its app to run on Android devices, and rebuilding it on Tizen would require a significant amount of work.

But ultimately, this developer, who has collaborated with Samsung closely in the past and didn’t want to be identified for fear of jeopardizing opportunities with Samsung in the future, decided it was worth it.

“That decision came down to the fact that wearables is a segment that we think is going to grow,” this person said. With no dominant operating system for wearable devices, “Samsung is as good a partner as any for jumping on that,” he said.